A publisher thrives as Quirk in system

Independent bookstores are struggling to stay in business. Borders is in need of a new owner.

But Quirk Books, an Old City publisher of irreverent nonfiction, isn't worrying about where you'll find its latest title. It's right there next to the trendy jeans at Urban Outfitters, and not far from the DVDs at Target.

"About half of our sales come from channels outside the book trade," said David Borgenicht, president and publisher at Quirk Books. "We sell books in specialty stores, gift stores, and big-box stores. We're a publisher that doesn't have to rely on bookstore chains for the success of a title."

Quirk - which is behind such titles as The Baby Owner's Manual and Field Guide to Stains - has made a niche in crossover titles that can be sold in unconventional locations.

"We don't do a lot of heavy market research," said Borgenicht (BOR-geh-nikt). "We publish the books we think should exist. We're our own research group and the end consumers as well."

That strategy has been paying off. The Feb. 25 issue of Publishers Weekly named Quirk to the fast-growing small-publishers list for the second time. It ranked sixth in sales growth, up 40 percent from 2005 to 2007, using publishers' self-reported data.

Borgenicht, a 39-year-old Salt Lake City native, worked at the Philadelphia-based independent publisher Running Press for six years after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. Then, in 1998, he started his own business as a book producer from the second floor of his Eighth Street rowhouse. Under the name Book Soup Publishing, he matched authors with designers and editors, selling prepackaged book ideas to publishers.

He scored a hit with the 1999 New York Times best-seller Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook (Chronicle Books) and its follow-ups, coauthored with Joshua Piven. He was able to parlay those earnings into starting Quirk Books in 2002.

The Worst Case Scenarios series, with its ambiguous line between humor and seriousness, has the kind of crossover appeal Quirk looks for. Featuring cartoon-illustrated tips for surviving situations like elephant stampedes or faulty parachutes, the book was reviewed for kitsch value in the New Yorker and for accuracy in Soldier of Fortune Magazine.

"The dirty little secret of our list is that most of our books have solid, usable and informative content," said Borgenicht. "We believe that humor books don't have to be useless, and useful books don't have to be humorless."

Some of these useful titles include guides on child-rearing (How to Con Your Kid), dating (How to Tell if Your Boyfriend is the Antichrist) and general reference (The Encyclopedia Shatnerica, about the toupeed thespian, due out this summer).

Quirk's best-selling book has been The Baby Owner's Manual, with 350,000 copies sold.

Lacey Soslow, the company's marketing manager, said Quirk's books appeal to 18- to 35-year-olds, often male, but are frequently purchased by women as gifts.

Many of Quirk's books lend themselves to cross-promotional opportunities.

The publisher partnered with CBS on How to Survive a Horror Movie, creating comedic online videos based on the book. For 24: The Official CTU Operations Manual, Quirk joined Fox to set up the "Jack Bauer School of Conflict Resolution" Web site.

Borgenicht said Quirk plans to launch irreference.com this year, a play on the company's brand of irreverent reference.

"At the end of the day, we're an entertainment company competing for peoples' time and money," said Borgenicht. "We're just doing it in an analog medium."

Jim Milliot, the business and news director of Publishers Weekly and coauthor of its list, said Quirk has found its niche. "There are very few companies who can say they put out a 'Quirk book,' " he said.

The list looks at small publishers that have been publishing for at least three years and have $2 million to $10 million in sales annually. Milliot said that Quirk - which, as a privately owned company, is not required to disclose its financial information - is at the higher end of that range.

"We were between five and 10 million in sales last year," Borgenicht said. "We had a profitable year, and we're expecting about 20 percent growth this year. We finally feel like we've made it out of the startup phase."

Quirk had five full-time employees and released eight titles in its first season. Today it has 16 full-time employees occupying the first three floors of 125 Church St.

By last year, Quirk had published a total of 138 titles, up from 74 in 2005. In that period, Quirk went from 19 to 16 employees, according to Publishers Weekly. ("We became more efficient," Borgenicht said. "Some of it was through attrition.")

Borgenicht said that Quirk's main competition comes from other independent publishers, including Running Press, his former employer.

Jon Anderson, publisher of Running Press, a division of Perseus Books, and Publishers Weekly's 2007 Publisher of the Year, said his company produces some mini-books that are similar to Quirk's, but he doesn't see it as a rival.

"We're quite a bit bigger and do more mainstream stuff," Anderson said. "I'm very impressed with some of the things they've done, but there seems to be plenty of room in the market for both of us."

For independent publishers, staying power can be rare, Milliot said.

"It's a real tribute to any company that is able to grow in a flat market," said Milliot. "Quirk has shown steady growth from the beginning. I get the feeling they'll be around for a long time."

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